The Lies We Tell
by Verna
Summary: A VC/Harry Potter/BtVS crossover. a whole bunch of people from all over the world show up in Sunnydale without knowing why. r/r
1. the comings and goings of the world of B...

Title: The Lies We Tell  
  
Author: Verna  
  
Summery: A new evil shows up in Sunnydale (Original huh?) and so do a few new faces.  
  
Rating: G for now  
  
Spoilers: It takes place some time in season six for Buffy. After Sixth year for Harry Potter and post Merrick for the VC.  
  
Note: This is just a random thing I began the other night. I did see the season opener for Buffy last night But I'm not gonna change the story now. It works better this way anyhow. You'll figure out how I changed it. It takes place after Buffy's been back a while. And for anyone wh read this before I fixed a bunch of stuff. And as always...please review  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the implied people places or ideas.  
  
**************************  
  
A young man walked down the grassy slope through the headstones of a Sunnydale Cemetery early one evening. When Pike came upon the grave he was looking for he couldn't help but smile. "She saved the  
world a lot" he read. "I'll bet she did" he murmured. "Merrick would have been proud." And with that he walked away.  
  
***  
  
"Giles! You can't go back to England! We need you!", Buffy yelled at her watcher. He hung his head.  
  
"I can't stay here. I need to go back. And you don't need me any more. You all know everything I have to teach you." He looked up and smiled. "Buffy, you were the smartest slayer ever. I don't know why they even bothered to give you a watcher. you never needed me. You needed your friends and you had them all along." He gave her a weak smile and then faced the rest of the group. "Anya. I hired a new  
clerk. Nice kid. He should be here in a few hours. Don't him too hard of a time huh?" Anya nodded unable to speak. "And you two..." He turned on Willow and Tara and gave a half sigh half laugh. "Just don't blow up too many things."  
  
"Can't you stay a little longer?" Asked Dawn.   
  
"No. It has to be now. My mother's sick. I have to go. I'll be back. You need to keep an eye on him for me okay?" He said jerking his thumb at Spike. She giggled.  
  
"And now I'm off." Giles announced. He leaned over and kissed Buffy on the cheek and walked out of the Magic Shop to get in the cab. They all watched from the window as a part of them left.  
  
A Few hours later Anya and Xander sat alone at the counter talking. Willow and Tara were up in the loft taking stock while Spike Buffy and Dawn were out patrolling. A young man with red hair and brown eyes walked into the shop.  
  
"welcome to the Magic Box," Anya said to him but her heart just wasn't in it.  
  
"Hi. I'm looking for Anya?" He asked.  
  
"Are you the new clerk?" Xander asked.  
  
"Yeah. My name's Ron," he said extending his hand.  
  
Xander shook it. "Hi. I'm Xander and this is Anya. That's Willow and Tara up in the loft there." Ron nodded to everyone as they were introduced. "so, What brings you to Sunnydale?" Xander asked.  
  
"I don't know. I just kinda got on a bus and it ended up here." Ron said shrugging his shoulders. Anya looked worried.  
  
"Cool. Well then, Welcome to Sunnyhell!" Xander joked completely missing Anya's nervous look. But finding plenty of fodder for future pranks to pull on the new kid in his confused look.  
  
***  
  
It was a few hours later as Anya and Xander were walking home that she told her soon to be husband her fears. "He was DRAWN here! He's some sort of demon! Only idiots and demons come to Sunnydale."  
  
"Nah... really? I'm sure he's just a regular kinda guy who wanted to get away."  
  
"Yeah but from what?" Anya demanded.  
  
"I don't know.  
  
***  
  
Pike was walking back to her grave tonight. By now he knew it was dream because he'd woken up this morning in his own bed. But he did know that the grave was real. He'd gone right to an American paper  
to check the obituaries. Buffy Summers. Dead. Dead since June.  
  
And so his dream self wandered around a cemetery he'd never been to. Memories killed him and he saw the three of them in flashes.   
  
Fighting vampires at the dance. Fighting with vampires on the parade floats. Fighting with her watcher. Watching the watcher die... The one time he'd seen her not fighting anything but her fears.  
  
And now she was gone. He felt really bad about how well he'd done since he'd last seen her. He thought about how easy he had it now and how much of nothing she had...  
  
***  
  
"So, this Ron guy. He nice?" Buffy asked Willow the next day as the rest of the scooby gang crowded around the Summers' table.  
  
"Better question," Dawn said glaring at her sister. "Is he cute?"  
  
"Yeah. To both. He looks really young. He says he's twenty on but he looks sixteen. British kid." Willow answered.  
  
"We traded one Brit. for another? That is so typically Sunnydale!" Spike  
quipped.   
  
"Yeah well I wish we could have traded you", Xander said. They were all silent not wanting to point out to Xander how mean of a thing it was to say. Even if most of them agreed.  
  
***  
  
Pike woke up with a start. It was the not the first time he'd dreamed about Buffy's death. No. He'd dreamed about it nearly every night since he'd last seen her almost six years ago.  
  
But this dream was different. It was stark and clear. She ran from her sister and dove into the glowing abyss. Why? He had no idea. There were others crying. Her friends. They all seemed so lost and so  
incredibly scared.  
  
Wait. Pike had seen that girl before hadn't he? In a picture that one of the guys in his band carried around with him every where. What was her name? Fern? Wilma? Oh well.   
  
"Gotta ask Oz," he said to himself.  
  
***  
  
Ron walked across his new front lawn in the general direction of the shop where he worked. His mind was weighted with thoughts of why the heck he was in this God-forsaken hell-hole. It had been Voldemort's fault. He'd come bursting into school one day and he and his death  
eaters had begun firing curses at every one. The older children fought back as best they could but they were too powerful.  
  
Harry, Ron and Hermione had been at the front fighting them off but Harry broke away from their line of defense and went off in search of Voldemort. Hermione was distracted and was hit. She fell to the ground dead. Ron wanted to die then. She'd died before he'd even had the  
chance to tell her he loved her.  
  
He watched as his sister next to him fell atop Neville Longbottom. Most of the teachers were dead and only a few students remind standing. That was when Ron's survival instinct kicked in. He ran. He ran back behind the line of students and up to his dorm. He grabbed some money out of a trunk he found shoved in a hallway and his muggle clothes. He stuffed it all in a backpack and dug Harry's firbolt out of  
his trunk.  
  
He scrambled on and fell out the window. He'd traveled for days. All over the country. He didn't think. He only saw his friends and enemies falling along side him.  
  
He woke up one day in LA. He remembered a vague plane trip and a long but bleared broom ride. He checked to see how much money he had. Enough for a bus to some little no where called Sunnydale.  
  
And here he was. He'd found a small hotel room and a job at a magic shop where he was headed now. "No. I won't think of them anymore. That's all behind me. I'm a different person now." And with  
that he entered his place of employment.  
  
***  
  
"Hey, Willow? Has that new kid shown up yet?", Buffy called as she walked into the magic shop.  
  
"No. He'll be here any minute." She called back. "Why?"  
  
"We need to talk. Where's every one else?"  
  
"In the back room. Come on"   
  
In said back room, the rest of the scooby gang sat around a table with books spread all over it.  
  
"What's up Buff?" Xander asked.  
  
"Cryptic Vamp in St. Mary's last night."  
  
"What'd he'd say?"  
  
"Oh, something along the lines of, 'the master is coming. my dark lord is on his way here...'" Buffy mimicked his voice.  
  
"Oh. Fun" said Willow.  
  
"Yeah. In a cryptic Sunnydale kinda way" said Tara.  
  
"So. What we got?" Buffy asked.  
  
"Well. A few old books and a few older books..." Catching Buffy's eye Xander continued. "Umm. Some big snake god wizard thing is on his way. And according to this very old book, he's as young as Spike is old."  
  
"What?", asked Willow.  
  
"Well. I think he's still alive but just old."  
  
"Right. Do we think it could be the same master my vamp was looking for last night?", Buffy asked.  
  
"I don't see why not." Responded Anya.  
  
"Well. Do we have a name for this guy?"  
  
"Nope. We can call him, 'Mr. A.'", Anya said  
  
"Mr. A?" Tara asked.  
  
"Sure. Mr. X is way too trite."  
  
***  
  
"Okay, Lestat, I have to ask. Why here?", Louis asked of his maker.  
  
Lestat simply looked around at the dismal dark hotel room he'd rented for the night. "I can honestly say that I have no idea." He said with a grin all his own.  
  
"Oh joy. We're running from one hell to another," Merrick said glaring at him.  
  
"She's right Lestat. I don't think we chose to come here at all. It's the Hellmouth. Any and all mystical beings are drawn here. But I cannot recall a vampire of our kind ever showing up here..." David let his  
sentence trail off when he saw no one was realy paying attention. Sighing he dropped into he only chair in the room.  
  
"Hey. Check this out. There's a magic shop right here in town. One Starbuck's and one magic store. Wow. This is small town America." Merrick flipped the pages of the guide of "what to do while in town" magazine.  
  
"Sounds fun. Care to join me?" Lestat teased the witch.  
  
She laughed and took his extended arm. They left laughing and carrying on like a pair of young lovers.  
  
"Well. That should make it a quite night for us," Louis said.  
  
"Maybe. I kinda wanted to check out that club we saw on the way here. Might be able to find out more about the town. I always wanted to visit here." David said. But seeing the disappointed look on the older  
vampire's face, he offered: "Care to join me? Could be fun. And besides. we'll be home before the two of them."  
  
Louis smiled in that way that drove all who saw it crazy and nodded.  
  
"Well then. Let's go."   
  
***  
  
Ron walked into the Magic Shop just as it was getting dark. It was winter so it was early yet. He was only supposed to learn what to do tonight and he'd start regular the next day.  
  
When he first walked in he saw no one but he could hear voices coming from the back room of the shop. Not sure what to do he walked over to the door but stopped short when he heard what they  
were saying.  
  
"Ok. So Mr. A is some tall snake looking demon thingy with a lot of black magic up his sleeves. Sounds like we need you and Tara big time on this guy." A woman he didn't know said.  
  
Willow nodded. "Hey look at this! I found his name! Voldemort. Sounds French. Any one ever heard of him?" They all shook their heads but Ron had frozen. He'd followed him here! He was going to kill him.  
  
Willow looked up. Ron had made a very soft gasp or something because suddenly they were all staring at him. A man with unnaturally yellowish hair spoke first.  
  
"Is this the new clerk?" He drawled.  
  
Willow nodded.  
  
The man walked over to him. "How much did you hear?" he snarled.  
  
"Voldemort..." Ron gasped.  
  
"You know about him?" The woman with the blonde hair asked.  
  
"I wish I didn't."  
  
"You lied to us didn't you? About why you're here and how old you are." Ron could only nod.  
  
*********  
Lame huh? Should I finish it? 


	2. Of running and randomness

Part the second.  
  
Ok For all of you who pointed out that I should have pointed out the differences in the two Merricks, I hear ya but it's gonna be a part of the plot. And don't worry to all of you who have no idea about the  
Anne Rice people. I'm gonna explain all that. Also, I'm in the middle of reading the Anita Blake vampire novels. If any of you would like to see any of that in here let me know and I'll see what I can do. That said. Let's go.  
  
***  
  
Oz stared at the drummer in front of him. "So you're telling me that vampires are real, Willow here is some great witch and that the vampire slayer is dead? Wow.... Wow..." He shook his head in disbelief.  
  
"Look. I know-"  
  
"Hey man it's cool. I already knew" Oz told him giving a small grin. "I knew Buffy but I didn't know she was dead."  
  
"Hey. I'm sorry. I knew her a long time ago. I doubt she'd even remember me." Pike shook his head. "hey. Maybe we could go. I think I'd like to say good bye and Harry did say we should start a US tour  
at some point. We could start it off in LA."  
  
Oz nodded. "I'll talk to him", the lead singer said. Pike gave his friend a small smile and lapsed into memory while Oz went off to talk to their manager.  
  
***  
  
"Where's Dawn?" Buffy asked the group.  
  
"At the Bronze" Spike told her.  
  
"Right. Just checking. So. Ron, what can you tell us about this new big bad guy we got?"  
  
"Umm well. See I don't know much about him. He killed most of my friends and I think he destroyed my school..." Ron broke off his short narative unable to continue.  
  
"Poor bloke. must be under a ton of stress right now" Spike muttered. Buffy nodded.  
  
"Just tell us how to kill him" she said laying a hand on his arm.  
  
The boy looked up and right into her eyes. "You can't kill him."  
  
***  
  
Merrick laughed as she and Lestat wandered the dim streets of the town. She never thought she'd be able to come here. She'd studied it in her years working with the Talamasaca but they were far from the  
place and never sent anyone to study it.  
  
"Wow! Look at all those cemeteries! They must have a lot of people die here." She pointed out.  
  
Her companion nodded in agreement. "Yes. Now that should make it easy for you to hunt and all without getting caught." He paused. "Now where is this magic shop?"  
  
"Right there." She said pointing. "God! For all your vampire sight you miss what is right in front of you."  
  
Lestat glared at her. "Let's go then. It looks like they're still open." They pushed their way into the shop. It was empty but they could hear low voices coming from the back room.  
  
"Just tell us how to kill him" Said a woman.  
  
"You can't kill him." Said another voice. This one of a young man.  
  
"They must know we're here" Merrick said to the tall blonde.  
  
Lestat laughed loudly. "Hello? Anybody home?" He called.  
  
A Girl with blonde hair rushed out. "Hi! Welcome to the Magic Shop! Can I help you with anything tonight?"  
  
"No. Just looking." Said Lestat as Merrick said:  
  
"Yeah. Do have any...." She cast a sheepish look at Lestat and shook her head. "Never mind."  
  
"You go look. I'd like to talk to this young lady here." Lestat said with one of his famous smiles crossing his face. Merrick pouted and walked away.  
  
"So. Why not tell me your name?" He invited the girl.  
  
"Anya"  
  
Lestat studied her. There was something wrong with her. She was defiantly mortal but she seemed very old and she could shield her thoughts very well. A single world crept into his mind. "Demon."  
  
"What are you?" He asked her in a low threatening voice.  
  
"What's it to you? Who are you?" Asked a young man coming out of the back of the shop.  
  
Lestat looked up. He was annoyed. All he wanted to know was what was different about this girl Anya.  
  
"Hey! I asked you a question. What the hell do you want with my fiancé?"  
  
"Fiance?" Asked a confused red head coming out of the back.  
  
Lestat ignor her. "I want to know why I can't read her." Lestat said simply. "I wanted to know what it was about this town that is making every one I know act so strangely. I wanted to know how old she is really. If she's older than me then I might leave." He smiled showing his fangs.  
  
"Vampire..." The boy said.  
  
"Where?" Asked another girl coming out of the back room behind the boy.  
  
"Right here" Lestat said.   
  
"I think it's time for us to go" said Merrick in an urgent voice tugging on his arm.   
  
"I don't, Merrick. Let me go."  
  
The girl in the door frame suddenly attacked him. Lestat jumped back. She began to punch and kick him. He blocked fairly well. Laughing all the while.  
  
A Shelf of glass objects fell over and both Anya and Merrick gasped.  
  
But Lestat and the girl continued to fight. Lestat knew he could get it over with and kill her at any moment but he was having fun.   
  
This one was strong. She could shield her thoughts and got in a couple of good punches. Lestat was only blocking but if she got on his nerves he would start to hit back.  
  
Finally the girl spoke. They were still fighting. "Who the hell are you?"  
  
"My dear. You've never heard of the Vampire Lestat?" She stopped short. In mid-punch too.  
  
"You're kidding right? I mean Dracula I could believe and all that but Lestat? Where's Louis and Armand? And where the hell did you get those fangs? They look so fake!"  
  
"They do not!" Lestat exclaimed childishly. And then adding a quick note about the girl's pronunciation of Louis name.  
  
"We need Giles." The girl muttered under her breath.  
  
"You're the slayer aren't you?" Merrick asked the girl.   
  
She nodded. "My name's Buffy."  
  
At this Lestat could not help but to laugh.  
  
***  
  
Dawn and her friends sat at tiny table in the corner of the club where every body hung out. "I can't believe that she said that! I mean who the fuck does she think she is? His girlfriend? No! I am!" Dawn's  
friend Sara yelled over the din of the local band playing songs with no rhythm and even worse music.  
  
"Sara, Look. He's over there..." Jenny's voice faded as the band struck up a loud note. Dawn didn't care anyway. She was too lost in the band's drummer.  
  
Grant was the only real talent in the group and Dawn had known him since kindergarten. She'd always taken his longish black hair and big gray eyes for granted and now she found herself lost in them.  
  
"Hey! Earth to Dawn!", Sara said waving her hand in front of her friend's face. "What's so interesting about Grant Weaver?" With this Sara turned back to the rest of the group. "OOOO! Dawn's in love  
with the drummer!" She squealed. Dawn rolled her eyes and got up to get a drink.  
  
As she walked across the floor to the counter she noticed two men come in. They were both noticeably older but not by more than a few years but then, hadn't Buffy dated a man older than her by a couple  
hundred years? Besides. They were strangers. Dawn had never seen them anywhere in town and if she had she knew she would have remembered them.  
  
One of them was tall with tanned skin and blue eyes while the other was shorter with long black hair and startling green eyes. They were both magnificent.  
  
Suddenly the tanned one turned to her and stared at her like she was some kind of alien with green skin and a huge head! She watched as he muttered something to his companion and they made their way over  
to her. She was frozen on the spot.  
  
The taller man with tanner skin spoke in a voice that was so soft she thought she heard it only in her head.  
  
"Are you the key?" Dawn was startled. No! She wasn't the key any more! The lock was gone! No lock no Key right? Didn't that meant that there was no more key?!  
  
"No- No I'm not a key. I-I don't know what you're talking about. Excuse me." She said to him in a shaky voice as she brushed past them. Or tried to at least. The man grabbed her arm but she did not  
face him.  
  
"Your sister is the slayer. She supposed to be dead." Dawn looked back at the man. He was looking at her with patience and a calm expression. Something about him told her that there was something very  
off about her but she had no way of knowing that because she'd never met him before tonight.  
  
"No. I don't know what you're talking about." She tried to get past the two of them again but he blocked her path again. "let me go. Please." She was beginning to panic. Her friends over at the table were watching and laughing at her thinking she was only flirting with this way older man. At this point Dawn had a question of her own. "Who are you?"  
  
"David Talbot." Said the man extending his hand with a pleasant smile.  
  
Dawn's eyes grew wide as she took in the sight of him. Yes. Exactly like the books said he would look. And the man with him? Surly this could not be Louis? The books all said he looked more human than any of them but no. He was not human. If you looked at them both close enough you could see them for what they really were or weren't. Even in the dim light of the club. But the green eyed man. He was stunning. He looked so pale and Dawn could have kicked herself for not realizing that David had been reading her mind. Or had he?   
  
She was so confused that she ran out of the club with the two vampires in hot pursuit. But no body saw the two of them leave at all.  
  
***  
  
Grant Weaver watched as his best friend ran out of the crowed club and into the street. She seemed to be fighting with two men. Grant was glad that the band's set was almost done.  
  
After they were finished he slipped past the other boys and out to where Dawn stood shaking as the two men watched her with cold eyes. Taking no notice of them other than to curse them silently he went over  
and out his arms around the girl he'd know all his life.  
  
"Do your parents know you talk like that young man?" The taller man asked with a bit of an annoyed sneer on his face.  
  
Dawn looked up startled, grabbed Grant's hand and ran off. Louis turned to David in confusion. He was different some how. His normally kind and gentle soul seemed taken over by something soulless and  
demonic. But when David looked him in the eye Louis banished all thought that there was something wrong with this brother of his. He turned to watch as the two teens disappeared into he graveyard.  
  
When she finally stopped Dawn and Grant found themselves in the middle of a graveyard. Now Grant was into the dark Goth stuff as much as the next kid (so basically he was into it for thrills but it never  
ment much to him) but this was weird. What would he do if she tried to kiss him? Where had that come from? He was startled by the sudden thought. Laughter rang in his head.  
  
"Umm. Dawn. Not to be cryptic or anything but why are we in a grave yard?"  
  
She didn't answer. She just looked around. All of the sudden her head snapped up and she stared at him with her eyes wide with fright. Something seemed different about her for that second in her eyes. It was almost as if she hadn't existed at all until a few months ago. Where were these thoughts coming from?  
  
"I have to find Buffy!" She said before she sped off. Damn she was fast. Grant tried to go after her but he'd forgotten that she was the new star on the track team. Damn. He sighed and started to walk back  
towards the Bronze.  
  
Damn that girl was weird. So was her sister come to think of it. They both seemed to be the center of everything weird in the town. Grant had hoped that being in high school might change her but he wrong.  
Now he hoped that she would open her eyes and see him as more than a friend before they both died of old age.  
  
Grant took his time as he walked. He wondered what the hell had made Dawn so scared of that man. And how the hell had he known about that curse Grant was sure he'd said only in his head.  
  
Looking up he relized he was back at the club and everything seemed normal. He sighed. Had any of this really happened? Was he going crazy? "I hope not" he muttered to himself.  
  
The two men were gone when he got back to Sunnydale's only club. Good. Not good that it was the only place to hang out but good that the men were gone. Something about them had given him the willies. There was something very very wrong going on here. God this is one fucked up town he thought.  
  
Please review and tell me what you think! 


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